Chapter 7
I smiled as I reached up to touch my lips which were still slightly tingling from where he'd kissed me and looked up to see Frigga and Sif almost in tears and hugging each other. Thor had walked up behind Loki and clapped him on the back and said, "This is wonderful, brother! You two shall be good for one another!" I chanced a glance up at Odin to see that he was absolutely beaming from ear to ear at Loki and I. Looking back over to Freya and Sif I noticed that Sigyn now had tears silently pouring down her face as she stumbled from the room and Sif tore off after her.
My smile faded a bit as I began chewing my lip only to have Loki pull my lip from between my teeth and say in a husky voice in front of the remaining people, "Don't do that, dove." I went to open my mouth to say something and then heard Frigga actually squeal and blushed from head to toe and buried my face in Loki's chest as I began giggling. At this point, Odin stood up off his throne and walked to Frigga and enveloped her in a tight hug and said, "They remind me of us when we were that age, my love." This caused Loki, Thor and Frigga to all burst out laughing although now Frigga was blushing just as hard as I was.
I raised my head and playfully gawked at Odin and said, "Why, Odin! Are you telling me that you were rebellious and mischievous?!" Frigga who was already giggling full out snorted at my question which caused the rest of us to laugh even harder. Odin was clutching his sides, Thor was leaning against the wall and Loki and I were wrapped in each others arms as tears of hysterical laughter poured down our faces. "Oh..Oh my dear...You have...no idea....where Loki...truly gets...his tricky ways...from!" Frigga managed to say. Frigga and I talked for about an hour them telling me old stories about Odin's glory days and causing us all to laugh at some of his stunts until Sif walked in and stopped dead in her tracks looking quite confused.
"I think I missed something. Why are you all laughing?" She asked looking from one person to the next. "Oh, my dear Sif. Our sweet Midgardian maiden here asked Odin if he was rebellious and mischievous when he was Loki's age. I couldn'thelp myself. I had to tell her the old stories." Frigga said a huge smile still on her face. Sif blinked a few times then she too burst into a fit of giggles.
It took several more minutes for her to calm down but finally she managed to calm herself just as Odin asked, "What happened to Sigyn?" Immediately the room went from calm and jovial to tense and almost cold. "That's what I came in here to tell you, my King. After she ran from here I followed her for as long as I could. She'd just turned the corner to the hallway that lead to the rooms that the female Midgardians were housed in when she disappeared." Sif said in a quiet but deadly serious voice. Immediately, I was out of Loki's arms and sprinting out of the throne room and back towards my old room with all of them right behind me.
"Daci!" Frigga, Odin, and Sif said. "No!" Thor yelled as he took off running after everyone else. "Dove, don't!" Loki pleaded but I ignored them all and kept running. As I sprinted down the longest hallway, tears began to fall from my eyes as I envisioned Nat and Wanda being tortured by Sigyn because of me and I pushed myself harder. Just as I was turning the corner to the hallway where my former room was a scream rent the air and tore through me bringing me up short. I knew that scream. I heard it many times in battle and had killed the people who had caused it to issue forth from my sister's lips.
"Natasha!" I moaned as I hit my knees and Loki was immediately beside me as my strength both emotional and physical failed me and I wrapped my arms around his neck and began to sob. "Shhhh, it's alright, my love. Everything's alright. Odin and Frigga will take care of Sigyn." He murmured softly in my ear as Frigga, who's eyes were the lightest blue I'd ever seen them, and Odin, who looked ready to tear Sigyn limb from limb, strode forward towards the door of my former room. Another louder more terrified scream ripped through the air and tore at my soul and I sobbed harder as Loki pulled my head down into his neck and began whispering in my ear.
"Do you hear that my sweet? Do you hear the beat of my heart as I hold you close to me? It beats only for you." He began rocking back and forth gently and playing with my hair and I began to relax against him as he continued to whisper sweetly in my ear. "Good girl. Relax for me and tonight I'll make you forget all about what has happened this day, pet." I heard a soft snort and looked up to see Sif standing beside us shaking her head looking completely exasperated at Loki. "Yes, dear Sif?" Loki asked as he looked up at her as well.
"Is that all you can think about? Your beloved is hurting and all you can think about is mounting her like a brood mare?" Both mine and Loki's eyes narrowed but for completely different reasons. My eyes narrowed because I knew that Sif would never say anything as heartless as that nor would she word it like that. Loki's eyes narrowed and he growled, "Sif, I am warning you, do not test me. The only reason I am not throwing you threw your bedroom door and sealing it shut permanently for the next week is because you are a lady and I do not wish to stoop so low as to attacking those who are...weaker than I." Sif scoffed and it was then that I realized something almost too late.
Her eyes which were normally a beautiful hazel the same as mine, were now a bright gold color. The same exact color that Sigyn's eyes turned every time she would see Loki and I together in the banquet hall. "Loki, MOVE!" I screamed as I dove out of his lap just as Sigyn revealed herself and threw a ball of flames exactly where he and I were sitting only moments before. I stared at the spot that he and I were just sitting in and realized that if I hadn't caught on when I did he would have been seriously injured and I would've been dead.
Sigyn laughed and stalked towards me another ball of fire in the palm of her right hand. "Stupid, naive, little Midgardian slut." She growled as she raised her hand and rooted both Thor and Loki where the were. "Sigyn!" Thor snarled. "Daci." Loki whimpered and I looked over at him to see tears in his eyes. A sharp pain radiated through my neck and shoulders and I was forced to look back up at Sigyn. "Did I give you permission to look at what is mine, bitch? I don't believe I did. You'll have to be punished for that!" She cackled madly as she turned the ball of flames into a knife with a red hot blade and grabbed me by the throat.
I knew it was going to happen moments before it did and I also knew that the screams that I'd heard weren't Natasha's. They were mine. Sigyn had warped time just enough that she used my own screams to lure me exactly where she wanted me. I slammed my eyes closed a scant second before she drove the knife between my two bottom right ribs causing me to scream in agony and writhe as she tightened her grip on my throat. "NO!" Both Loki and Thor roared as Sigyn laughed coldly. The door to my former room burst open as Sigyn pulled the knife from between my ribs and causing it to glow white hot slammed it between my bottom two ribs on the left side and I screamed louder this time my body going rigid. Just as I thought the pain would consume me and leave me as nothing more than a scorch mark on the floor of the Asgardian palace it stopped and I could breath again. Taking a few shuddering breaths, I open my eyes to see Frigga standing with Sigyn pinned against the wall by her throat.
"Release. My. Sons." She said in a voice that was so cold I was surprised that the entire palace didn't freeze instantly. Sigyn looked as though she wanted to say something but Frigga applied more pressure to her throat and suddenly Thor and Loki both toppled into one another. "Oh, sorry!" They both said and then rushed in two different directions. Thor rushed towards his mother who just gave him a look and he rushed into my old room and came back minutes later helping a very hurt Sif out.
"Sif...I'm so sorry." I gasped as I made to sit up but Loki was right beside me with his hand on my shoulder saying, "Careful, my love." I smiled at him softly and said, "I'll be alright to sit up." Turning back to Sif she smiled at me and said, "You...would've done...the same...for me...sister." Tears stung my eyes as she called me sister and I smiled at her and nodded. She put a hand on Thor's chest as they drew level with Frigga who still had Sigyn pinned against the wall by her throat and said, "A moment." Thor let her go with a wary look in his eyes and took a step back as Sif limped over to Sigyn and Frigga.
"My queen, may I?" Sif asked quietly. Frigga simply smiled darkly and let go of Sigyn's throat at the same time that Sif swung as hard as she could with her right fist. A loud, wet crack issued through the hallway and I knew that Sigyn's nose had been broken moments before the bright scarlet torrent began to pour from her nose and she screamed and hit her knees as Odin came out of my old room and he stormed towards her. "SIGYN!" He roared causing all of us to jump and a few of us to gasp. I heard a few gasps from behind me and turned and saw to my horror, the Avengers standing behind Loki and I.
I immediately found Nat and her eyes connected with mine as I gave her a pleading look knowing that the entire team had seen Loki holding me, begging her silently with my eyes to not say anything about it. To my surprise she simply smiled one of her rare genuine smiles and nodded and then looked back to Odin. I, too, turned back to Odin who now had Sigyn by the throat as blood still poured from her nose. "FOR THE CRIME OF ATTEMPTED MURDER ON NOT ONLY A CITIZEN OF ASGARD BUT ONE OF MIDGARD AS WELL I HEREBY BANISH YOU FROM BOTH REALMS! I STRIP YOU OF ALL POWER AND I CONDEMN YOU TO HELHEIM FOREVERMORE!" Odin roared and Thor, Loki and Sif all gasped.
I didn't understand what had just happened but I assumed that it was the worst type of punishment imaginable because even Loki went white with fear when Odin proclaimed that. As soon as he let Sigyn go she immediately vanished in a cloud of black smoke with a scream of, "NO!" As soon as she was gone Odin turned not to Sif or Frigga, but to me and knelt down beside Loki and I and said, "Are you alright, my dear?" It hadn't occurred to me until he said something to check my wounds and I looked down and to my astonishment there were none.
Looking up at him smiling I said, "Yes, I'm alright now. Thank you, Odin." He smiled and helped me to my feet and sent Sif to the Healers. As everyone gathered around us, Loki pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me possessively and said loud enough that the entire team could hear, "You are my strength, my fury, and my heart. You are my everything. And you are MINE!" He growled the last word in my ear and my knees went weak beneath me as he kissed me. "I'm sorry my daughter is your what?" A voice growled behind me. I hurriedly broke the kiss and turned to see a very livid Hawkeye standing behind me. "Dad." I whispered terrified.